Note: This is the sixth and final blog post in our series about the five stages of digital marketing maturity that most businesses fall into. If you haven’t read the first five blog posts in the series, you may want to check those out first. Here are the first, second, third, fourth, and fifth blog posts in the series.
By the time a business has reached the fully engaged stage of their digital marketing maturity, the business has come full circle. As such, the term "business as usual" takes on an entirely new meaning.
Digital marketing is ingrained in the company’s DNA and virtually everyone in the company “gets it.” And all employees have digital marketing performance embedded in their personal and business unit performance goals.
And because of this, they have achieved breakthrough results such as increased revenue and customer loyalty. And many fully engaged companies are seen as leaders in their industry. Starbucks would be a good example of this.
But it takes more than investing in technology to be a digitalmarketing leader. Let’s look at some of the key characteristics of a fully engaged company.
Characteristics and Challenges
Once a company is fully engaged in their digital marketing efforts, they are able to create seamless, two-way communication with the customer both on and off company channels. They both listen for and respond to relevant customer conversations.
Because of this, they can provide a better customer service experience across the board and build stronger relationships with their customers. And they actively monitor all data in real-time and use this data to make dynamic changes that immediately impact business results. Because of this, the adoption and impact of digital marketing tools are measurable.
Repeatable, well-documented processes are integrated into the daily operational workflow of all business units. And the company is able to bring products and services to market more quickly.
The biggest challenge for a fully engaged business is to continue to be innovative and forward-thinking. They need to continue to provide a superior experience for their customers. And they must continue to combine creativity with data and measurable efforts.
4 Lessons to Be Learned
There is a big difference between doing digital and being digital. Digital transformation is not just a bunch of piecemeal initiatives taken here and there. To experience true digital transformation, it must become a part of your company’s culture.
But where do you start if you aren’t there yet? Here are four lessons every business can learn from fully engaged digital companies:
- Leverage data. Leveraging data is the best way your business can begin to identify customer habits and trends in the marketplace. This can help you to improve your processes, create better products for your customers, and identify areas where you could improve.
- Listen to your customers. Just one customer complaint that isn’t properly dealt with could go viral and create tons of bad press for your business. For that reason, it’s more important than ever to take the time to listen to your customers. Follow in the footsteps of Uber, Amazon, and Netflix and offer your customers endless opportunities for feedback.
- Remove friction at all costs. What is the deciding factor as to whether a customer buys your product or goes to one of your competitors? Most of the time, the answer is friction.
Here are a few things to consider:
- Can your customers find your products online? Do you even show up in Google?
- Does your webpage take too long to load?
- Is the product information of your website confusing or inaccurate?
- Is it difficult to modify the shopping cart or check out?
Digital companies stand out by removing any friction from the customer
experience.
- Anticipate emerging trends. Fully engaged companies don’t wait to be caught off guard by changes in the marketplace. But rather, they use data and their knowledge of the market to anticipate and stay on top of emerging trends.
As such, they are often the first to introduce new solutions and to meet customer demands. And they never settle for the “tried-and-true” way of doing things.
Moving Forward
We created our digital maturity model to help other businesses begin to recognize and begin to change the way they operate. Hopefully, this series has been helpful to you and has shown you some areas where you can begin to make improvements in your own business.
Of course, there is no “one-size-fits-all” approach and every business has a different learning curve. If you feel like you are still needing additional help and guidance, Inalign may have a solution to help you move forward.
If you are just getting started, we recommend doing a marketing audit. This will be a full assessment of your content marketing, social media, SEO, and more. And after the audit is completed, we give you a roadmap for where to go next. From there, we can help you with your analytics and provide a full digital marketing toolbox.
